Daniel Mendelsohn Libri

La storia racconta un viaggio di cinque anni attorno al mondo intrapreso da Daniel Mendelsohn per scoprire cosa sia realmente accaduto allo zio Shmiel durante l’Olocausto. Le storie del nonno rivelano un’infanzia a Bolechow, Polonia, ma si interrompono sul destino del fratello, della moglie e delle quattro figlie. La famiglia evita di parlare di Shmiel, lasciando solo sussurri in yiddish. Da questi frammenti, Daniel inizia la sua ricerca. Anni dopo, scopre lettere disperate di Shmiel al nonno nel 1939, che rivelano un terribile tradimento. Decide quindi di rintracciare i dodici ebrei di Bolechow ancora in vita, testimoni del destino dei suoi parenti. Insieme al fratello Matt, un fotografo le cui immagini accompagnano il libro, il viaggio si snoda attraverso quattro continenti, esplorando le differenze tra verità e finzione, ricordo e fatti. La ricerca culmina nel paese d'origine, dove le tracce di quegli eventi attendono ancora un testimone. Questo racconto è un'odissea nella memoria e nell'infanzia, un'esplorazione di una generazione cancellata, una riflessione sulla tradizione ebraica e sui testi biblici, nonché una cronaca di una tragedia universale, unendo dolore e erudizione per recuperare ciò che il tempo ha smarrito.

The book is set to be highlighted in an upcoming Ken Burns documentary that explores the complex relationship between the U.S. and the Holocaust. It delves into historical events, societal attitudes, and government actions during this critical period, offering insights into how America responded to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Through a blend of personal stories and broader historical analysis, the book aims to shed light on the moral dilemmas faced by the nation and the lasting impact of these choices.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017 From the award-winning, best- selling writer: a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading - and reliving - Homer's epic masterpiece.

New volume in the Frick Diptych series pairs an essay by Frick curator Aimee Ng with a contribution by bestselling author Daniel Mendelsohn.

This moving book intertwines memoir, biography, history, and literary criticism, telling the stories of three exiled writers—Erich Auerbach, François Fénelon, and W. G. Sebald—and their connections to the classics, from Homer to Mimesis. Hailed as "exquisite" by The New York Times, the work explores the mysterious links between the randomness of life and the artfulness of storytelling. It chronicles how these writers turned to classical literature to create their own masterpieces that reflect on narrative itself. Auerbach, a Jewish philologist who fled Hitler's Germany, wrote his seminal study Mimesis in Istanbul. Fénelon, the seventeenth-century French archbishop, crafted a sequel to the Odyssey, The Adventures of Telemachus, which served as a veiled critique of the Sun King and became a bestseller in Europe for a century, leading to his banishment. Sebald, a German novelist exiled in England, created meandering narratives that delve into themes of displacement and nostalgia. Interwoven with their tales are Mendelsohn's own struggles to write about the Holocaust and his experiences reading the Odyssey with his father. As the narrative unfolds, a climactic revelation connects the lives of these three writers across time and space, prompting a reevaluation of the relationship between narrative and history, art and life.

"In this rich and riveting narrative, a writer's search for the truth behind his family's tragic past in World War II becomes a remarkably original epic—part memoir, part reportage, part mystery, and part scholarly detective work—that brilliantly explores the nature of time and memory, family and history. The Lost begins as the story of a boy who grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust—an unmentionable subject that gripped his imagination from earliest childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache of desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939 and tantalized by fragmentary tales of a terrible betrayal, Daniel Mendelsohn sets out to find the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. That quest eventually takes him to a dozen countries on four continents and forces him to confront the wrenching discrepancies between the histories we live and the stories we tell. And it leads him, finally, back to the small Ukrainian town where his family's story began, and where the solution to a decades-old mystery awaits him."--from amazon.com

Winner of the 2020 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, this genre-defying work by best-selling memoirist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn delves into the connections between the randomness of life and the art of storytelling. Blending memoir, biography, history, and literary criticism, it intertwines the narratives of three exiled writers who turned to classical texts to craft their own masterpieces that reflect on narrative itself. Erich Auerbach, a Jewish philologist who fled Hitler's Germany, wrote his influential study of Western literature, Mimesis, in Istanbul. Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century French archbishop, penned a clever sequel to the Odyssey, The Adventures of Telemachus, which served as a veiled critique of the Sun King and became a bestseller for a century, leading to his exile. W. G. Sebald, a German novelist self-exiled in England, created meandering narratives that explore themes of displacement and nostalgia. Amid these tales of exile and artistic struggle, Mendelsohn recounts his own challenges in writing two books—a Holocaust family saga and a memoir about reading the Odyssey with his elderly father—both haunted by themes of oppression and wandering. As the narrative unfolds, a climactic revelation about the interconnected lives of these three figures prompts a reevaluation of the ties between narrative, history, art, and life.

Euripide, definito da Aristotele "il più tragico dei tragici", scrisse il suo capolavoro, le "Baccanti", quando ormai era prossimo alla morte. Si tratta, come è stato detto, dell'opera di più sconvolgente tragicità che sia mai stata scritta, e al contempo la più importante fonte a nostra disposizione per la conoscenza della religione dionisiaca. La tragedia, come ha scritto Vernant, non rappresenta la realtà: ma la mette in questione. Nessuna opera, come le "Baccanti", è andata così lontana nel mettere in questione leggi, rapporti, istituzioni, credenze e saperi, fino a presentarci il destino umano nella sua tremenda e assoluta nudità.

'Mendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace ... He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told.' Sebastian Barry

Eine berührende Vater-Sohn-Geschichte auf den Spuren von Homers Epos Als Jay Mendelsohn, pensionierter Mathematiker und 81 Jahre alt, eines Tages spontan beschließt, den Uni-Grundkurs seines Sohnes Daniel zum Thema »Odyssee« zu besuchen, ahnen beide Männer nicht, dass dies der Beginn einer ganz eigenen Familienreise ist. Vater und Sohn beschließen nämlich, auf einer Schiffsroute den Spuren des großen Epos von Homer zu folgen – und im Angesicht der eigenen Sterblichkeit kommen sie sich dabei endlich wieder näher. Bewegend und mitreißend erzählt Daniel Mendelsohn, wie ein 3000 Jahre alter Mythos ihn und seinen Vater wieder zueinanderführt.